(Reuters) - Germany's
Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) is close to a deal to increase its controlling 40
percent stake in Greece's OTE (OTEr.AT) by buying a further 10 percent from the
debt-laden government, the newspaper To Vima reported.
The Greek newspaper Kathimerini first
reported last month that Deutsche Telekom was eyeing the 10 percent stake.
OTE is
worth 6.1 billion euros on the Athens Stock Exchange, giving the stake a market
value of about 610 million euros. Greece directly owns 6 percent of the stake,
and the remaining 4 percent are owned by the state-run pension fund IKA.
When Deutsche Telekom bought its existing
stake in 2008, it secured a right of first refusal if the state decided to sell
any more shares. The remaining 50 percent are held by smaller private
shareholders.
Greece is pursuing a multi-billion euro
privatization program under the terms of its international bailout.
Selling the OTE stake has not been part of
it so far because the government wanted to maintain a minimum say in the
running of the former state monopoly, which is still Greece's biggest telecoms
company.
However, privatization revenues have been
far below target. Athens has raised a total of 2.6 billion euros in cash from
asset sales since a European Union/IMF bailout began in mid-2010, far less than
the 22 billion it was supposed to have collected under the bailout's original
terms.
(Source: reuters.com)
